The Edge  of A Razor
by JyrFalcon345
Summary: Clarissa has been forced into a contract with Wolf O'Donnel. The task is simple: Infiltrate the team and lead them to Centaurus VII. But as she bonds with the team will she be able to carry out her henious mission?
1. Chapter 1

_Every time I get out they just pull me back in…-Unknown._

The Lylatian Battle cruiser _Blade of Defiance_ swept through the darkness of space, trailing blue streams of energy as it slowly trundled through the sea of stars. On the ship's bridge, it's one and only resident, a black vixen sat in the captain's chair, a bath towl wrapped around her slim frame. She had just taken her customary evening shower and saw no reason why she should have to do all of her work in her room, when she could be on the bridge where all of the action was.

Clarissa's hand hovered over the controls of a console. She was looking at what she called her 'Heat Sheet" , a Lylatian government file which showed the deeds of all known criminals throughout the galaxy. Her fingered over the delete key. The government had been on her trail for the past month since she'd stolen the prototype battle cruiser for use as her flagship and base of operations. _Honestly…who leaves ignition codes written on an index card? _ She needed to clear her name-at least in the eyes of the Lylat police…on the mercenary hot spots, her name would show up as one of the most accomplished bounty hunters in the system, allowing her to land some very lucrative contracts.

Suddenly her com system beeped. Looking at the readout, she realized it was her private line, accessible only to family members and a few close friends. No ID showed on the scanner. Warily she punched the confirmation button. A male voice filtered through the bridge's high performance speakers. "Hello there Clarissa. Planning on purging your Lylatian files? That's illegal if I'm not mistaken…" Clarissa felt her throat tighten with fear…a sensation she hadn't felt for a long time. "Who are you…how did you hack my line?"

"I'm just a humble merc like yourself…although considering your records I'd say we're both evenly matched in terms of accomplishments. " Clarrissa's hands flew over the controls, setting the scanners for a wide beam search, all frequencies. " The voice came back, "Ah, a typical reaction from a Merc, scanning all frequencies very good. You'd never know where my signal could be coming from…I could be floating right above you, or broadcasting from an asteroid five lightyears from here…" There was silence as Clarissa's mind raced. "Who are you?"

A low chuckle issued from the speakers, and Clarissa's fur rose slightly. "My name is Wolf'O Donnel. I have a contract for you… one that will provide a grim sense f satisfaction on my part…and a large deposit in your accounts if you choose to accept." Clarrisa's sene of anxiety lifted slightly. She swallowed and said, "What's the job?" There was a pause on the line and then- "I want Fox McCloud." Clarrissa had to quip, "In what manner? I never knew you swung that way Wolf…" A growl of anger ripped through the line. "If by 'what way do I want him." you mean, "I want to castrate him and feed his genitals to Venomian vultures.' then yes I want him. " Clarissa's mind swam. "You do realize what you are asking me to do? You're asking me to kill one of the best damn bounty hunters in the galaxy, a man who helped turn the tide in the Aparoid invasion. He helped all of us….even you."

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment. "When I was in Flight school, I met a young vixen…Akira. We fell in love…and then Fox and some friends from his frat house cornered me and her at night. I was a quiet kid, and wasn't very popular. Fox had been lusting after Akira since the beginning of the year. He was drunk and pulled a blaster. He shot, she jumped…I watched in horror. " There was a silence on the other end of the line. Wolf's voice shook slightly as he said, "That girl bled out and died in my arms. Now if that isn't a reason to kill someone…I don't know what is…"

Clarissa felt her stomach harden. Still…"I won't do it. All you've told me could just be some bullshit story to get me to work for you. " Her finger hovered over the connection line's disconnect button. " It could very well be." Wolf said cheerily, "But consider the fact that I have the reactivation codes for your ship's transponder which you still haven't found, along with the grid points of your current position. Just think, within three days you might be facing a Lylatian tribunal for treason…" Clarissa bared her teeth and snarled, "You can't threaten me Wolf, evading the Lylat Police is a walk in the park. " "I'm not so sure about that…could you evade the police along with _every _other bounty hunter in the galaxy, if _ I _ put a price on your head? Cruisers like those only have so many shots in their laser cannons…" Clarissa glared at the scanners, _Still no trace._ "And even if you did evade them, what's to stop me from coming after your family? Your parents, brothers…sister. I'll kill them so painfully that you'll go mad wanting revenge. And then I'll come after you…"

She had no leverage! None! This idiot had her over a barrel, and there was nothing she could do about it. "In fact I'm not even asking you to kill him, join the team and guide them to this location: Centaurus VII. I'm giving you one year." Wearily Clarissa said, "And how am I going to join their team? Fox doesn't let in anyone, you know." Wolf chuckled. "All will be revealed in the contract…" A text file ballooned on the main viewscreen. Clarissa read it and gasped _He may be crazy…but he's a freaking genius…_


	2. Phase 1: Death of a Vixen

Clarissa looked over the contract as she ate breakfast in the ship's galley. The Lylatian Foundry had spared no expense in it's construction, and had given the ship facilities to serve a compliment of 250 crewmembers. Gleaming pots and pans lined the walls above gigantic griddles and stoves which utilized heat from the ships three La'Grange drives exhaust system. The eating area was filled to the brim with tables and chairs, all laid out in neat and orderly rows in the standard Lylatian blue and white.

She looked around at the pristine floors, the gleaming tables and chairs and suddenly realized something. It was depressingly dull on a ship like this. Perhaps with a full compliment of crew at full battle rattle it may have been a lively place of action…but with one single occupant, loneliness was almost a given.

Her breakfast was a simple affair, toast, eggs (she had made sure that the galley was stoked with _real _eggs as dehydrated foods usually didn't cut it with her.) and freshly roasted coffee which had been made from plants in the ship's hydroponics bay. She got up and walked over to a wall console pulling up the ship's music selection. Chopin's Raindrops suited her current mood. As the strands of song lifted her out of her rut, she rose and carried her dishes over to the disposal unit and left the room. As she headed for the bridge she looked out of one of the viewports and gazed out at the gleaming expanse of stars which shimmered brilliantly.

_Beauty…it's something most mercenaries can't appreciate. _ She sighed and turned away from the viewport. Arriving on the bridge she looked at the view screen and saw the Great Fox in her sights. She zoomed in and noted with incredulity, that the ship had numerous sections of it's heat and RAD shield paneling loose or missing. She pulled up the ship's specs and saw that it was a Lylatian FleetFoot, one of the oldest and most outdated space cruisers she'd ever seen. The thing was outfitted for a crew of ten…and even that was stretching it. _How in the world does he keep that thing working? _ She looked at the specs again and snorted in incredulity.

The plans as outlined by Wolf had begun… _The Great Fox is currently proceeding to the Karasso space station for repairs and R&R. You are to tail them…but DO NOT engage cloaking generators…I want him to see you. Dock on the north side of the station….be sure to bring the ID and records…I've set up your accounts directly… _ Her mind drifted to another line in the contract: _ Your first move will be to 'kill' Krystal…_

"There it is again sir…that cruiser has been tailing us for the past week." Fox McCloud squinted at the screen and began fiddling with the controls trying to fine tune the image. The Great Fox's computer systems were supposed to correct the distortions created by the heat wash of the ship's engines…but that and almost everything else had begun to act up after the last battle in the Aparoid invasion. Finally the image steadied…to an extent and Fox was able to pick out the sleek arrow like profile of the cruiser as it slid easily through the darkness of space. "Whats the IFF signature?" Slippy fidled for a moment and said, "It's registered as a friendly." Fox forced himself to ignore it and glanced around the bridge.

The ship had begun to show it's age. It had come under attack from an Aparoid patrol during the last stages of the team's final assault, in fact they had been attacked as they were retreating. One of the enemy fighters had managed to score a one in a million shot and had blasted out the motors controlling the Great Fox's launch bay doors, sealing the teams ships inside. With it's only external defenses manifested in a pair of fixed angle non rotating laser cannons, neither of which worked, due to a broken Focal Lens, the team had been lucky enough to escape with the engines working. The rust colored fox was pulled from his reverie by Slippy who said, "We are currently on approach to the station, two more minutes of transit and one minute to dock."

Slippy's hands danced over the keys as he negotiated the docking price with the station's computer. "We've got 32,000 credits for repairs." Fox sighed. "Well, it could be worse…we'll be able to get the major repairs done at least." He scowled up at the ceiling, glaring in annoyance at the lighting system, half of which didn't work, a blown power conduit had seen to that. _Cosmetic repairs will have to wait. _ The doors to the bridge opened with an earsplitting screech (the motors had started to give out) and a shapely blue vixen walked into the room.

Crystal was one of the newest members of the team, and although she was new to the whole mercenary thing, Fox had found her to be a very fast learner, and she acted primarily as te teams mediator, soothing the incessant conflicts between Falco Lombardi and Slippy and generally keeping all of them in good humor. His gaze lazily traveled along her profile. _It doesn't hurt that she's kind of cute. _ The Great Fox sidled along a docking port and the automated docking latches engaged, automated arms extending and locking onto the ship's hard points.

Fox looked at the view screen and noticed that the mystery ship had begun to turn in a slow arc toward the opposite side of the station. _I wonder who's on that thing?_

_  
_

Clarissa's ship,_ Blade Of Defiance _docked quickly at the station. The Vixen was dressed in full battle armor, a black formfitting bodysuit, which heavily accented the curves of her body. Over this, she wore a heavy black trenchcoat, made entirely out of FlexiBlast armor. Her weapons were simple but effective. One sawed off shotgun with 15 rounds, and an added plasma charge function, two Desert Eagle handguns outfitted with plasma packs for when she exhausted the clips of ammo, and on her left hand she carried a very rare, EMP gauntlet, that would send 1,400 volts coursing through a target at the touch of a button. She strode foreward through the doors, cracking her knuckles experimentally.

When she came to the security checkpoint she flashed her Lylatian Special Forces ID and strode through. As she looked out at the expanse of shops and kisosks, she thought, _I hope this plan works…_

Far away from the station, behind a drifting comet, Wolf O'Donnel's fighter fired it's grappling hooks into the icy surface and powered down. The gray wolf punched a button on his console, then opened a channel. _Clarissa…this is Wolf…the team has arrived…phase one can begin. Go ahead, be creative…there's more than one way to kill a cerinian._

Clarissa looked at her wrist computer and targeted the team…


	3. Lying in Wait

_You might note in this section my nods to Icefox III and to Agent Smith (The Matrix) One of Icefox's main characters wears a trench coat and is a total badass. Agent Smith carries a Desert Eagle ( A seriously Powerful Handgun) Take the badass weapons and fashion and you've got one sexy vixen. _

Clarissa sat in the food court of the station, drinking an iced tea and trying desperately to keep from looking nervous. She had walked past the team as they had disembarked, and given them a cursory glance. Slippy, Falco, Fox and Krystal were all congregated in a tight group, discussing where they would shop. Fox was headed for the scrap yards, no doubt to purchase parts for his ship. Falco and Slippy's choices she ignored, as she only was really paying attention to Krystal.

_I'll take the third floor. I hear Bartoli's has a new Hydroponics bay, and they're selling actual vegetables. I'll be back when you are…_ As Clarissa had walked past Falco had let out a low whistle. Clarissa had ignored him and continued down the hallway, secretly feeling her stomach lurch as she looked at the blue vixen, dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a red t-shirt. Now, as she sat at the plastic table she kicked herself mentally.

_Never connect with your target…even if she has done nothing wrong. _

She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the levels which rose around her. The station had been constructed 50 years ago by a pirate with a penchant for architecture. It's design was at once militaristic in it's hard edges and brushed durasteel, and modern with those same rough edges suddenly changing into wood grained paneling and beds of passionflowers and lavender.

The thing that she had first noticed was the noise, an almost palatable hum of excitement and energy. She saw an amazing amount of diversity even in a simple area like the food court, aliens from all across the system were queuing up at the various restaurants and vending machines, paying for the dizzying variety of entrees (most of which were already dead), beverages and confectionary delights that the stations suppliers were only to happy to sell. Business was very lucrative on the station and with annual profits of 2.3 billion credits, the family was (obviously) quite willing to give up their life of piracy and settle down- for the moment.

Clarissa's mind drifted back to her first conversation with Wolf…most specifically his threats.

_What's to stop me from coming after your family… _

Wolf's voice echoed in her mind and she felt her throat tighten.

_No one threatens my family…they've been threatened enough as it is…_

Being a mercenary, especially a high profile one meant that the more people that you pissed off, the more danger immediate family members were placed in. Her hands balled into fists.

_If he hurts them… _

Her communicator chimed and she pressed the speaker into her ear. Wolf's message flowed like poison through her ear and she rose. Heading for the lift, she set her watch.

"_5 minutes until phase 1…" _

She stepped inside and glared darkly at a pair of lupines that tried to enter the carriage, allowing her leather gloved hands to stray inside her coat, revealing the glint of cold steel. The carriage doors closed. As the lift slowly rose to the Docks level, she began to meditate, sending neural impulses to her adrenal glands, which sent a powerful flood of adrenaline racing through her body. Within her body a change had begun. In her mind's eye the words,

PsychoTech implants active…metabolizing/converting adrenaline surge…crystallized at the borders of her vision. Mentally she switched through the various sensor modes, her vision switching from the EM spectrum to X-Ray, then Gamma Ray and finally to Heat sensing and Infra Red. She felt a momentary feeling of self loathing run through her body, and then quelled it, clamping down hard on her emotions. The images of her mother and father and siblings flickered through her mind. Mentally she vowed: _I will kill for them…die for them if necessary...family is all I've got. _

The Star Fox team had gathered in front of their ship's docking port. Falco and Slippy had come back laden with bags of supplies and weaponry, Fox was carrying a long series of forms showing the parts he'd managed to haggle for. All of them were looking at their watches. Falco sighed.

"Krystal's late _again_. You've got to put a leash on her or something…"

Fox chuckled,

"Yeah I'll slip a tracker pill in her next meal."

Then Fox saw Krystal striding toward them-from the other end of the bay. The only turbolifts were located in the south section of the complex, and she was walking in from the north side…odd. Also she smelled…different.

Behind Krystal, lurking in the shadows Clarissa activated her heat scanners and the blue vixen showed up as a moving image of yellows and reds. A gleaming white object floated in the center of her head. She remembered Wolf's instructions:

_The Nanotech assassin is recognizable due to a fusion core, which should show up on heat scanners. The fusion core is needed to supply the trillions of tiny nanite's with 'cohesion waves' allowing the formation of a solid body, transmission of power and the neural network that makes them so damn smart. Most bounty hunters would shield the core, but I want you to be able to recognize the Assassin. Dispatching it should be easy, no need to worry about time, I've created a localized power outage in the store… you know what to do._

"Damn his brilliance!" she snorted and strode noiselessly out from cover. The vixen halted a few feet in front of Fox.

"Where are your groceries Krystal?"

"I decided not to buy them…."

Momentarily Fox noticed that her fur seemed to be a bit _too_ blue…and her eyes were off color.

"Krystal, what?-"

His words were cut off as the Assassin threw it's arms around his neck-and kissed him. The kiss was deep, and Fox's nose was filled with the vixen's amazingly intoxicating scent. The team stared in open mouthed shock. Falco's beak dropped open and, Slippy's bags fell from his fingers. The two broke apart, and Fox quipped, "Well. This is sudden."

Suddenly a bullet whizzed a hair's breadth from Fox's ear. He looked up to see a vixen in a black trench coat and combat boots pounding toward them. _The same one from the hallway…_ Clarissa had thrown her first shot wide to get their attention. The nuero kinetics enhancement provided by the PsychoTech implants had allowed her to make that seemingly one in a million shot. She fired again, the next slug hitting the Assassin in the left ankle. Bones splintered with a wet _crackle_, a sound akin to breaking a plate underwater. Blood gushed from the wound, and the vixen cried out in agony. Clarissa mused grimly, _Break a leg kid…or maybe an ankle. _ As Clarissa came, her gun hand flashed up, the weapon spun in her fingers and she brought it crashing down on the back of 'Krystal's head.

The female toppled screaming anew as her shattered ankle twisted. In one deft movement, Clarissa holstered her Desert Eagle and spun- ducking just in time to avoid a fist which cratered the air where her face had been moments before. Fox Mcloud was upon her, fists flying; the force of his blows causing Clarissa's hands to sting after only a few punches. One undercut got through, and his fist slammed into her stomach-which would have caused her to loose breath had she not locked her stomach muscles and used her hands to slow the punch slightly. Wolf's instructions sang through her mind:

"_Don't hurt him unless it's absolutely necessary…" _As she blocked another punch she reflected on how easy that had seemed. She could probably handle Fox in normal combat- but this was different. He was battle mad- on an adrenaline high.

Suddenly she felt a fist slam into the back of her head- Falco had sneaked up behind her and hit her with a vicious right hand punch. She used the momentum from this to throw Fox backward, tapping him sharply on the Cordial nerves just above his eyes. He fell backward and slumped to the floor. _20 seconds of unconsciousness, should be enough time… _ She turned back to the imposing Avian who swung again, growling, "When you mess with one of us you mess with the _team." _ Before she could react he sent an uppercut slamming against her chin, which snapped upwards. Her neck muscles stiffened as the PsychoTech implants took hold. _Thankfully... I __can__ harm this one…_ Anger flared in her eyes and she raised her fists.

The pair circled each other momentarily and then Falco charged her. Clarissa dropped her right shoulder, feeling the wind from his fist sear her face. She pressed a control on her EMP gauntlet and in one fluid motion planted her right foot squarely in Falco's armored chest, a plasma charge in her boots sending a 70 watt charge racing through the Avian's body. Blue sparks shuddered over his feathers and he was thrown back slamming into the opposite wall and slumping to the floor. She looked over at the fox who was still unconscious on the floor. She ignored Slippy as she had scanned the toad as she had surveiled the group-no weapons.

She turned to the blue vixen who lay in a pool of blood, her face pale. Momentarily Clarissa blanched- what if this was the _real_ Krystal and not the assassin. The behavior of the female was unlike any mechanical killer she'd ever seen…far too sentient. She quelled the feelings of doubt and reached for her shotgun. She hefted the weapon and aimed. The vixen looked up at her, eyes pleading. Clarissa felt cold anger run through her veins and she growled, "Tell your master that the next one's for him."

She aimed briefly and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed in the docking bay, and Clarissa winced as she saw the body jerk convulsively as the buckshot cratered her chest. _She looks just like my sister… _A quickly expanding pool of blood began pouring from the vixen's body and Clarissa stepped back, not wanting to get the stuff on her boots. Suddenly she felt a violent pain in the back of her head and turned to see the toad holding a stun blaster. He'd shot her in the back of her head. As darkness came to claim her she reached into her pocket and withdrew the Lylat Spec Ops ID. As her mind began to shut down she sent a Com pulse to her ship, instructing it to tail the Great Fox… As the last neurons in her brain flickered into dormancy, mentally she quipped, _Note to Self: Add this to the Danger pay segment of Bill…_

Wolf O's Donnel's fighter was latched onto the bottom of the _Karasso _station's superstructure. He had made sure to maneuver himself so that he was in the 'dead zone' of the station's sensors-this would allow him to escape detection by any security drones, and by Clarissa's warship, if she even made the leap of logic to try to search for him on the station. At the moment he watched a live feed from the Assassin droid's visual sensors. Clarissa was doing moves that he'd never even seen before, and except for a couple of mistakes she seemed to be one of the most aware bounty hunters he'd ever seen. "She's only 21…" he mused aloud.

_She fights with such brutality and yet shows extreme restraint. I would have torn off Fox's ear if he'd gut punched me like that, but she took the high road and used a disabling move of some sort… _

His eyes roamed over her body, drinking in every detail; from the sensual curve of her hips to the flash of white fangs which involuntarily lifted as she fought. He slowed the movie down a bit as he saw her standing over the Assassin, the picture of cruelty. She raised the gun and said the words….

"_Tell your master that the next one's for him…" _ Wolf smiled, and thought, _An excellent move, using a single statement to pique the curiosity of the team and to simultaneously threaten me. Couldn't have said it better myself. _ Again his eyes roamed unbidden over her body. _I must have her. In time…when this mission is over we shall see the same point of view…_

The brig of the Great Fox was; (as much of the ships accommodations were) primarily out of date. Clarissa awoke in a cramped cell, with steel bars blocking the exit. She looked up at the ceiling near the door and saw a faint ring of carbon deposits where the repulsion field generators had been. Hastily done welds showed the additions of hinges on what Clarissa guessed may have been an ancient storm grate.

_I'll bet that his generators burned out long ago, and since they've never had prisoners before, Fox never bothered repairing 'nonessential equipment."_

Clarissa stood up and checked herself.

_No injuries…except the back of my head feels like I stuck it into the Blade of Defiance's exhaust vents. _

Mentally she checked the position of the Blade, which had undocked and lurked about 500 meters off of the Great_ Fox's _starboard bow, cloaking generators engaged. _Well if worst comes to worst, I can always teleport out and go after Wolf myself…_ She looked down at herself; she had been stripped of everything except her bodysuit-the fabric of which was interwoven with starship grade armor. They'd even taken her boots for Christ's sake!

The sound of footsteps coming down the corridor snapped her out of her reverie, and she sat on the bench, her eyes trained on the door. The blue Avian walked into view, looking murderously at her and holding a blaster.

"Falco Lombardi…it is a pleasure-"

"Shut up, vermin."

He holstered the blaster after a moment and pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pocket. Clarissa obligingly stuck her wrists through the bars and grimaced as the avian cinched the cuffs tightly around her wrists. "Well this is sure quite a way to treat someone who just tried to save your leader's ass!" Falco unlocked the cell door and grasped her firmly by the neck, roughly shoving her forward into the hallway. As she walked along the corridor, she looked around and saw the burned out lights, the dark control panels and missing ceiling tiles and thought, _It's held together by prayers. How in the world can they still be using this as their base of operations?_

Finally they arrived in a comparatively large room in which were three chairs and a table on which were arrayed all of Clarissa's weapons: both Desert Eagles and the 3000 Smith & Wesson. Clarissa was forced to sit down in the chair, after which her legs and upper arms were handcuffed to it's legs and backing.

Falco spoke into a communicator and the vixen's stomach lurched as she saw Fox Mcloud walk into the room. He didn't sit but merely walked over to the far wall and leaned against it, fixing Clarissa with a look that chilled her to her core. Falco picked up the pistol and examined it briefly then replaced it on the table's wooden surface.

"You killed a member of our team about ten minutes ago. Now Fox and I both have a very extreme desire to kill you in any number of unpleasant ways, explosive decompression, Sarin Gas, Biosan-4 injections, things like that." Fox growled, "I'd just as soon blow her head off with her own shotgun. We'd get points for irony."

Falco continued, "Case in point. However we saw the Lylatian Special Forces ID and decided to ask you what fucked up mission requires the elimination of one of our team members."

Clarissa began, "That thing that I killed was not Krystal, but was really an advanced NanoPhage assassin. They're very realistic and can cost as much as 3 of your ships. All it takes is about 1 hour of programming and you've got a machine that can mirror the personality of an individual exactly-until the moment it chooses to strike."

Fox's voice snapped, "All she did was _kiss me! How is that a killing move?_" "It slipped an ampoule of poison under your tongue as it kissed you. It's a move I used once…" Suddenly Fox coughed and dropped to his knees. "My heart…it's beating too fast. " Unbeknownst to them Clarissa had used the Cordial nerve tap to create a link with Fox's brain, she could control his autonomic reflexes with ease.

He broke out in a cold sweat and dropped to the deck, Falco rushed to his side and looked at Clarissa. "Help me save him. " he cried

"Get me out of these cuffs and hand me my EMP Gauntlet." He did so and she slipped the device over her arm, slipping her hand into the glove at it's end. She keyed in a random frequency, causing her hand to arc with electricity. With her free hand she ripped open his shirt and felt his pulse. She purposefully spiked his heart rate, causing him to convulse slightly-realism counts after all.

She then pressed her free hand against his abdomen and sent long tendrils of electricity arcing across his body. "If modulated properly, electric currents nullify it's effects." Slowly she lowered his heart rate down to normal. Withdrawing her hand, she watched as the fox slowly regained consciousness. His eyes locked with hers and suddenly his hands clamped around her throat, arm muscles bulging_. "I don't believe a __word __of that bullshit!" _ he growled.

Clarissa bared her teeth and snarled, _"Think about it for a second you idiot! She entered from the north section where there are no turbolifts; if she had been coming from Bartoli's she would have been coming from the south section. Second, her eyes were Bi colored , Cerenians are the only species which do not show genetic variations in eye color…"_

She locked her hands around his arms and slowly pried them apart, pushing him back against the floor. She straddled him and kept an iron grip on his wrists as she continued. _"Third, her fur was off color; Krystal is sky blue, not robin's egg. And fourth, she was in estrus or in heat in case you don't know what that means. I could smell her pheromones going a mile a minute. Cerenians only go into estrus during July and August, it's October for Gods sake. Their pheromones are particularly potent and she used your sexual inexperience to her advantage!"_

Clarissa rose and released the fox. "I was assigned to protect you. General Pepper's orders. I don't know why you weren't notified but I'm going to do my job- whether you like it or not." Suddenly a soft chime sounded and Fox looked to see his communicator glowing. Krystal's voice came through. "_Guys it's me, It's past time to regroup. I'm standing out here with 7 bags of groceries…." _ Clarissa rose and said, "Still think I'm lying?" Fox gave her a curt apology and strode from the room toward the airlock.

A few moments later Krystal entered the room. Clarissa looked at Fox and said, "I'd like to return to my ship. It's the black Lylatian Battle Cruiser callsign: _Blade of Defiance. _I've been trailing you for three days…sorry if I gave you the willies." She turned to Fox momentarily and said, "I've been given authorization to provide assistance in all missions you intend to undertake during my assigned time. That includes combat, logistics and whatever else I can help with."

Suddenly Clarissa's mind flashed and she said, "What did you do with the 'corpse'?" Fox grimaced and said, "It's in a stasis unit on the lower level." Clarissa cursed and began to grab her things. "What? I thought you killed it. " Fox said, eyes narrowing. Clarissa grabbed her Eagles and holstered them, then clipped her shotgun onto her belt. "All I did was disrupt it's ability to function cohesively. It's still alive. Falco and Fox, grab the heaviest blasters you've got and follow me.." Fox quipped, "If I'm so valuable why do you want me to come near the thing?" Clarissa couldn't keep a smile off her face as she said, "To draw it out of course!"


	4. Doppelganger

Clarissa, Fox and Falco stood outside the door to the Stasis Pod chamber, weapons at the ready. Lowering his blaster rifle for a moment Fox said, "I still don't see why I have to go in there with you…Why don't you go?" Clarissa turned to him an exasperated look on her face. "Even in it's most basic forms Nanophage technology is especially encoded to be able to adapt itself to it's environment. It could have spread itself over the floor to match the tiling or have turned into a light fixture…It will be nigh impossible to flush out." 'The fox looked at her uncertainly. Clarissa quipped, "What, are you afraid that I'll go in there with you lock the door and try to forcibly _bed _you?" Krystal stepped in, "If by 'bed him' you mean what I think you mean than you can just-"

Clarissa raised her hands defensively and said, "Easy, it was a joke." Krystal fixed her with a look and said, "I think that you'd best be the one who enters, seeing as _you_ were the one who was hired for her ability to protect Fox." Clarissa grinned, this vixen had her sense of humor. "Alright."

The door to the room slid open and Clarissa stepped through. The room was dark and sparsely furnished, it's walls bare. Her boots clanked against the naked metal as she walked forward. The stasis pods were large clunky affairs, with a multitude of cables leading off onto ports in the wall. A glass canopy allowed the viewing of occupants, Clarissa noted that one of the chambers glass canopies had been blown outward, shards of glass littered the room. She switched to her heat vision and looked around, immediately noticing the thing masquerading as a thick power cable leading to one of the pods. _Clever little bastard. If I could get one of those things it might make an interesting pet... with the right programming…_

Still, Wolf had told her to get Fox into the room, and so she made a great show of looking around the room at every object, even looking at the bundle of wires where it was located. Finally she stepped back to the entrance and walked out letting the door shut behind her. She turned to Fox.

"Now there are two ways that we could do this." She pulled a small glowing orb from a pocket. "I could use this EMP Pulse detonator to kill it, although with the electrical shielding on the Great Fox in it's current condition I'd guess that I'd end up frying your _very _expensive navigational computers along with _every other electrical system in the ship._ Still it's a small price to pay for the knowledge that you 'weren't in danger.'"

Fox's jaw dropped slightly and Clarissa continued, enjoying his distress in spite of herself. "Or we could do it _my _way, sure you might risk a bruise or blown fusebox but it's a lot easier when you can _see_ what you're trying to kill." Fox growled and got behind Clarissa and together the two stepped forward into the room. There was quiet for a few seconds and then, _"Fooooxxxx!"_ The pair turned and saw a gruesome sight, Krystal's re animated corpse staggered toward them, crying out his name in a wet slithering sort of voice.

Mcloud staggered back his face taught, "K-Krystal…" he breathed. Clarissa gave it a slight pulse with her gauntlet and the thing hissed in rage, opening a mouth filled with sharp silvery fangs, which dripped strings of saliva. "That thing isn't her…you must realize that it's using your indecision to it's advantage.

Clarissa's Desert Eagle bucked, sending a slug piercing the left shoulder of the assasain, which chuckled briefly, the sound grating on Clarissa's ears. It raised it's right hand which rippled, and then began to change, it's fingers shimmering silver as they lengthened into long wickedly sharp needles. Clarissa suddenly felt something press against the back of her head. A blaster muzzle. Suddenly Clarissa reached down in one fluid motion and grasped the assassin by the throat, her gauntlet sending blue threads of electricity streaming over the assassin's frame. _"Stop it…Stop it now. I won't let you kill her again!" _

Fox's blaster pressed against the back of her head, and she bellowed, _"Falco...restrain him while I finish this!" _Falco burst into the room and grabbed the vulpine from behind, his brilliant blue forearm locked around the Fox's chest. "Do it now, while I can still hold him!"

Clarissa's arm muscles tensed as she raised the struggling form into the air. She stared into it's maddened eyes and on the other end, Wolf jumped at the amount of hatred that was being directed at him. _'Initiating full voltage Pulse in 3…2…1."_ Clarissa's arm glowed brighter and an almighty howl of rage burst from the assassin's lips. She pressed the Desert Eagle against it's chin. "Goodbye." Fox saw her finger squeeze the trigger seemingly in slow motion, and then the vixen's head exploded in a flash of light and quicksilver flecks. An involuntary cry flew from his throat

Clarissa let the Vixen's now headless body fall to the floor with a thud. She holstered her weapon with a_ clank_. She turned to Fox and said, "It's over." Suddenly the flexks of quicksilver began to roll back toward the body. "No it isn't, it's reforming!" Falco cried raising his blaster. Clarissa raised a hand and said, "Just watch." The body melted and slowly began to form itself into a small silver cube which glowed faintly, ripples dancing across it's surface. "When you apply a high enough voltage, the nanite's memory modules are wiped. They then revert back to their basic cuboids shape. She stooped and sank her hand into the silvery cube, feeling the strange material conform to her hand. "See? It's harmless now. I have facilities on my ship that will allow me to reprogram it; who knows it might become useful."

As Clarissa walked out of the room, attempting to keep the semi liquid cuboid from plopping back onto the floor, Krystal stopped her.

" Just who are you? Falco gave me a rundown but I'm still confused as to what happened."

"Fox can give you the 411 in all it's grisly detail. " She turned to Falco on the way out. "By the way, you might want to work on your accuracy. Your punches are a little predictable." Falco opened his mouth to reply but Clarissa cut him off, "Really, I'd love to listen to your pathetic comebacks but I've got to get back to my ship." Saying this, she pressed in a command on her keypad and transported out in a flash of light. Falco flipped the bird at the spot where Clarissa had been and headed for his quarters.

Krystal walked into the stasis pod chamber and saw Fox sitting on the floor, mute a blank expression on his face. She bent down and placed a hand on his shoulder, feeling his fur rise at her touch. "Fox…whatever happened…you needn't feel responsible-" "But I am. Someone's threatening me and my team and the Lylatian military thought me so inept that they put some _operative _on my trail?!"

His fist slammed into a bulkhead angrily. "I should have seen it coming. There is no excuse for my lack of self awareness!" He got up and stalked out of the room, saying, "I'll explain this to you later-when I've had a chance to think."

>> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> 

Clarissa's living quarters were spacious and lavishly furnished; after all they had been designated for use by the captain. The place simply radiated opulence. It was filled with paintings, wood grained paneling, and, luxury of luxuries, it had it's own high performance whirlpool bath. Clarissa dropped her things on a designer Gerovac & Son's armchair (very expensive) and headed for the whirlpool chamber. She disrobed carefully, and looked herself over in the body length mirror before she got in. Her fur was black and shone with a brilliance that had made a former male acquaintance give her the nickname _10 w 40_ on the account that her fur had the same sheen as a puddle of oil he'd seen in a parking lot.

Rather crude, but she'd liked the nickname nonetheless. She'd liked him as well, and in the few short months that they had dated she had been marginally happy. But…as relationships among mercenaries oftentimes are, their's was purely physical. Which explained why when he'd suddenly been called away on a mission, they'd spent the last night together. She remembered that after they had, as he'd so eloquently put it, _Done their species proud, _she'd said to him, "Why is it that mercenaries are never able to fall in love?"

He'd looked at her thoughtfully and said, "Scientists have been trying to figure it out for years." She chuckled and playfully poked him in the chest. "I'm serious here…be serious for once in your life." He sighed and said, "In my opinion it's because of the lifestyle that we lead…the things we're called on to do. There's no room for morals or compassion in this kind of business, and so the closest thing that approximates a feeling of love is, for most individuals, sexual lust." Clarissa thought for a moment and said, "Still, at least we can mutually agree that the sex has been good eh?" Baroque chuckled and said, "'_Damnably good' _is how I'd put it. I'll bet you that you've aged my prostate a decade or so."

They were silent for a while and then Clarissa turned to look him in the eye and said, "Let's promise each other that we'll try to find love….promise?" He pecked her on the lips. "I promise." As the pair had parted for the last time, and she had shared the fabled 'last kiss' she couldn't help but feel a tear of remorse run down her cheek as she'd seen his fighter blast off into the sky. She'd lost a friend. And they were even rarer then lovers.


	5. Power Play

_Sorry about the short update. The way I ended the last chapter really screwed me over as to how to continue. Several updates that I drafted had Clarissa acting totally out of character…she was, nice-scary I know. I'll have more soon. Oh and if I could have a voice for her, I'd have whoever played as Trinity in the Matrix Trilogy. Read and review people you know the drill._

"So what's the job?" Clarissa's eyebrow cranked upward slightly as she lounged in a chair in the Great Fox's recreational room. She had been called over to the ship just as she had been finishing off a light breakfast of toast and cereal. Fox had wanted to fill her in on the details of their next assignment, and so she had dressed to suit her mood, silver shirt, black pants, and a decent number of sliver rings encircled her forearm and pierced her left ear.

The entire team was assembled in the room as well, Slippy noticeably bleary eyed due to his all night stint with the engines. Falco wore a simple white t-shirt and well worn pants. Krystal had managed somehow to look decent even with her limited wardrobe, a red shirt, and blue skirt.

Fox paced the room, his shadow falling over all of them as he moved about, getting things prepared. Finally he sat down in the chair at the room's center and slipped a disk into the armrest. A picture jumped onto the projection screen behind him and Clarissa's ear twitched as she saw the visage of a grey wolf staring out at her, his face hard, eyes, glaring at her. A faint scar ran down the length of his face and she saw that his left eye had the characteristic silver striated pupils that denoted cybernetic enhancement.

With the barest trace of a quiver in her voice, Clarissa said, "Who is that?" Fox looked her in surprise. "I'm surprised that a high level agent like you hadn't gotten his case files mailed directly to you." Clarissa shrugged and said, "Lylat supplies information on a need to know basis, I had no need of knowing him." Falco chuffed impatiently and Clarissa shot him a questioning glance.

He was a dangerous one, and Clarissa knew it. Of all of the people on the team, he obviously trusted her the least and would be most likely to look for any holes in her aliases. Not that he would be much trouble in combat. Strength she lacked, but in a firefight she was unequaled.

Fox continued, "This is a mercenary which most of us know as Wolf O' Donnel. He's about as bad as they come, has his sticky fingers in everything from arms smuggling to money laundering. For the a year his team scattered and he lay low, doing normal jobs for once. But now he's regrouped and has his hands in some stuff that could put way to much power in his hands."

An astrological map blew up on the view screen and zoomed in on a moon orbiting a small star. "This moon is the Hydrogen mining relay station, for cloud miners. Those guys mine Solex crystal's from the star's upper atmosphere and send the shipments back to the Lylatian Power Commission to be processed and sent to other worlds. Three weeks ago, Lylat got a distress signal, short just enough to triangulate the position, then complete radio blackout, and I mean no pinging, no background radiation. Nothing."

Fox cleared his throat and continued. "General pepper's office just got a communiqué from Wolf requesting a payment of 1.5 billion fresh printed Lylatian credits. He's threatening to continue to withhold the shipments and sell them on the black market if they don't show up."

He held up a slip of paper and said, "Pepper's promised to give us 3/4ths of the ransom request if we get him control within three days. He hasn't notified the public, as it would create a panic and affect the stock prices. The system is running on borrowed time, they've got enough fuel stockpiled to run at full capacity for two weeks, he wants to replenish the emergency stocks before anyone notices."

The map ballooned again, zooming in to the surface of the planet. "Star Wolf has the advantage in the fact that the base is mounted on starship grade repulsorlifts, and it moves so that it will continually remain on the moon's shady side. Because of the radiation generated by the sun's high solar activity the base is required to shift constantly."

"So what you're saying is that we'll only be able to attack from one side, right?"

"Yes…in a nutshell."

Falco leaned back in his chair. "Smart-ass merc. Should have splattered him when we last saw him. But Foxie here just _had _to take the high road. Had him in his freakin' sights and just couldn't pull the trigger."

"Couldn't pull the trigger eh? I've had it happen. Once. I stabbed him later though." Clarissa sipped her water placidly. Falco growled, "The fact that Fox isn't some sadist doesn't make him weak. "

If he was attempting to provoke her she wouldn't let it get under her skin. "I never said he was. Impulsiveness is not a desirable trait in a merc. I wasn't being sadistic. He was just another paycheck."

"_And you're a fucking sadistic little bitch." _ Falco muttered.

Clarissa's eyes widened. She opened her mouth to retort some nasty anecdote about his species that probably would have involved inbreeding, sexual prowess (or lack thereof) and bar-b-que sauce, but Fox raised his hand for silence. "Keep bickering like that and I'll assign you two as a pair. I'll not have you trading insults with someone who was assigned to protect me. Even if her methods are…questionable."

Clarissa ignored this. After a slight pause Fox continued. "This mission is doable, we've had to strike harder targets, but we'll need your support on this mission." He looked at Clarissa pointedly.

"I am here to support you in all respects."

"More specifically we need your ship. The _Great Fox_ was not designed with radiation shielding of sufficient strength to deal with radiation of this kind. You're ship however…I think it will be able to withstand any damage that the star can dish out."

Clarissa grinned fondly at the _Blade's _silhouette. "She's built to take on the apocalypse if need be. That's why I chose her. When do we move out?" Fox sprang from his chair. "30 minutes from now. Everyone, prep for medium to short range combat. No explosives Falco, unless you want to be part of a fireball. He'll be operating with his full team, that means Leon and Panther. You know what we've got to do. Let's move people!"

_Hey Icefox and Co., I'll give you a dollar if you can guess how I'm going to screw with Clarissa's implants in the next update._


	6. The Message

Clarissa's hand pulled back gently on the throttle. She let go of the flight stick and pressed a few toggles, setting the ship to hover mode. _200 feet from the surface. _ She looked down through the canopy glass which extended below her feet. She could see nothing, as she had been flying in via instruments. Her _ Spartan X-71's _ sensors had picked up the mobile base's presence easily during her approach. It was impossible to miss a building of that size and scope, even in the impenetrable darkness, one could feel it's looming girth, transversing the sands on dully glowing repusorlift pads.

The planet itself was devoid of an atmosphere, the ravaging fingers of the star's gravitational field had seen to that millennia ago, when the unfortunate celestial body had been pulled within the star's reach and had been stripped of it's atmospheric shield. The base was a veritable shell of lead paneling, radiation shield generators and atmospheric generators and air scrubbers. A series of massive domes arranged in a circle transversed the sands at a slow trundling pace. The domes comprised the mining complex, which loomed up around her as her ship entered the docking bay along with the three other Arwings. Warily she turned on her ship's floodlights and hovered a few feet above the ground for half a minute, surveying the area.

Finally she landed, touching the ship's landing gear gently onto the tarmac. The canopy flew open with a whoosh and she climbed out slowly, her movements were large and exaggerated. Falco watched her with interest. This was nothing like the cocky spec-ops agent he'd seen aboard the ship. She was obviously afraid of something.

Clarissa walked over to join the group pulling on a pair of leather combat gloves as she did so. Fox noted that Clarissa's hands shook slightly as she did so. "Are you alright? You look as if you've seen a ghost?" Her hand tightened into a fist momentarily and she responded, "No, just brings back a few bad memories." Fox nodded and turned to Krystal. "Any life signs?"

The blue vixen telescoped her staff to it's full length and tapped it against the floor with a sharp _rap. _ A ripple of faint blue light trembled from her staff and rippled out over the floor. "None that I can detect. There was activity here though." He turned to Clarissa. "Contact Slippy and see if he's got anything on the biometric scanners." Clarissa looked at her wrist computer and said with a tone of finality, "Apparently we just lost the uplink with the ship. We can't track him, he can't track us. We're cut off."

Fox looked up at the ceiling and cursed. "Must be the lead paneling. We'll have to split up and search the complex separately." Fox headed for the turbolift and pressed the call button, a lift came at his touch. "I'm taking level 1, Krystal take level 2, Falco and Clarissa, you know what to do. Regroup here in two hours. Stay off the Coms unless you need to. If Leon and Panther are here, they're probably running snooper equipment. Keep an eye out, they love laying traps. Leon's a born sadist, so he'll probably do something really nasty. Let's _move!"_

Clarissa's ride seemed to take her an eternity, and when the carriage did stop it deposited her onto the floor with a loud bang, that made her tense involuntarily. The hallway was completely and utterly dark, the air frigidly cold. She hated both darkness and cold weather, it reminded her of her first mission on Davinar six, where she'd been tortured for three days by other mercs who had wanted codes to an ICBM platform she had been guarding.

Steadying her hand she raised her right forearm to her face and switched on her starfighter's locator beacon, if worst came to worst she could always retrace her steps. The minutes ticked by and Clairssa's searchlight swept the ground carefully, taking note of dormant security cams, dead sentry droids. Then she saw what had happened to the miners. A hot cloying smell spiked the air, and her hackles rose, her hand automatically straying to her belt for her .45 caliber pistol. She raised her flashlight hand and saw the body of a vulpine laying spread eagled on the floor, half his head gone from a plasma round. Clarissa bent down over the body grimacing with revulsion.

The round had been well placed, the shooter's aim steady, seeing as how the bullet ha passed directly through his left eye socket and out through the (now vacant cranium.) She noted the blaster pistol in his hand. She picked it up by the barrel, examined it. _Standard pulse pistol used for self defense only. _It had been set to maximum. Suddenly she stared at the handle in disbelief. Her thermal sensors picked up a faint concentration of heat in the metal alloy. The corpse was also still radiating faint traces of body heat. Her mind spun as the awful truth slammed into place.

"He's still in the building." She croaked, and spun, pistol raised, aiming at the hallway beyond. Nothing. Still wary she continued down the hallway finding the bodies of two more miners, each blown apart in a similar fashion. Despite the amount of death she had seen in her lifetime somehow these corpeses disquieted her, as if she could feel their deaths being enacted right before her. Finally she came to the complex's comparatively clean recreation center.

The place was a wreck, chairs thrown everywhere, some with missing legs and backing. A section of tables had been thrown over, perhaps as a defensive barrier against the oncoming forces that had swept through the building.. Suddenly, with one foot in midair, she froze. Something about the room disturbed her, she couldent describe it, but there it was. Fear.

She pulled her handgun from it's holster and aimed the laser sight module at the air around her, the beam carving a red arc thorugh the darkness. _What in the hell am I freaking out about?_ She relaxed slightly and was finishing the mostions of placing her gun back in her holster when she felt a pair of cold reptilian hands wrapping around her throat.

Clarissa acted instinctively and attempted to twist herse;f around to face her attacker. But before she could move, a sharp pain manifested itself in the back of her head. There was the light _hiss _of a hyposray discharging it's contents into the main arterial veins of her neck. The hands suddenly released her, and pushed backwards. She saw a black scaled chameleon grinning at her savagely, a small snub pistol gripped easily in his left hand. With a growl she stepped toward him, prepared to tear him to shreds-and stopped.

[ALERT: VIRAL INTRUSION IN NUERAL SECTOR .23.23.4 DETECTED. ATTEMPTING TO QUARINTINE AND COMPENSATE… The pain came in a blinding wave, causing her to retch with horror. Images flashed before her mind's eye, her mother and father and sister lying in a pool of blood, their eyes pleading _with_ her to help them.

With a cry of anguish she upholstered her gun and charged the chameleon, whose gun bucked even before her arm had completed it's motion. The plasma charge seared through her armored plating, and began to eat into the flesh of her shoulder which sent her already addled brain into a cacophony of screaming. As she fell unconscious she heard the lizard slither, "A friend has a message for you…."

Clarissa awoke to a blinding pain searing through her body. The first thing she noticed was that her arms and legs had been shackled to some sort of a gurney, which faced a ceiling tiled in sickeningly bright pink tiles. _ The medical ward?_ She guessed mentally testing her bonds.

Her field of vision was limited, but nevertheless she was able to see the steel door to the to the room swing open with a grinding shriek that grated on her already tortured ears. A throb of pain shuddered through her system and she clenched her fists tightly, her lips involuntarily curling upward from the strain. She looked up blearily to see a vulpine of some sort standing over her, his powerfully muscled arms crossed over his chest.. She couldn't identify his face however because a leather facemask covered his visage almost completely; leaving mirrored slits for the eyes and nose holes.

The mystery figure stood next to her silently, his mirrored slits boring into her eyes. Clarissa opened her mouth to speak, but the figure merely pressed a button on a wall console and another surge of pain roared through her, causing a tortured scream to tear itself from her throat. The figure pulled out a mini projector and held it in front of her face.

Clarissa gasped as she saw Wolf's face blossom onto the screen. A smile played across his face as he saw her go livid with rage. He held a sheaf of papers and began:

_You've played me for a fool Clarissa. Attempting to mask your ships signature during the nigh…how uncalled for. I think that you are beginning to forget just whom you are dealing with…and as a show of just how serious I am I will divulge to you the information that I have…_

Clarissa nodded feebly, wincing as the virus sent another twinge of pain running through her mind. Static roared in her ears and she realized that her neural link with the Blade had

Wolf turned the sheet of paper around to face the camera. Clarissa's eyes narrowed as she read what the sheet said. " KC-5.223.2, MC-1.22.34.5 FC-2.33.2…what the hell does this mean?" Wolf's smile widened and he said the one word that sent the puzzle pieces clicking into place. "They're initials Clarissa."

_My God…he knows where they live…_ The numbers were stellar coordinate points which she used to identify the locations of her family. And if he knew where they lived… A vein pulsed in Clarissa's forehead as she roared, "_I've done as you asked Wolf…I followed your plans to the letter. Let me do my work as I see fit!" _

Wolf's eyes brightened maniacally, _ Fine then, cloak your ship all you want, but realize that I've had you injected with a transmitter virus…you're a walking beacon now….with this I shall leave you to your work. _

The beacon switched off and Clarissa was left alone with the strange figure. "And who the hell are you?" she managed to spit out. The hand descended to her shoulder and squeezed mercilessly. She screamed anew, tears spilling down her cheeks, as bone fragments shifted and nerves were rubbed raw. "I am a being of many worlds, Clarissa…one who knew you."

The Hypospray was pressed into her neck before she could blink. As she slowly began to fall into unconsciousness she jumped convulsively as the fox pressed his lips gently against hers. She should have felt shock, anger at the rough intrusion...but instead she felt only pure sensation that faded into nothingness as her brain shut down.

_So IcefoxIII are you __happy? _ _I kicked her down a few hundred notches. Shoulder wounds should ensure that she's not using any shotguns for a while… And I know that you all are wondering just who the person in the mask is…check farther back in the story and the answer is there…just trawl along and you'll find it. _


End file.
